Some of the longest-serving mayors in the United States are listed according to their length of service in that currently or has served in that part of the state or legislative office. The office of mayor is the highest ranking local official and responsibilities may vary from ceremonial (see weak mayor) to full-time responsibility for city operations (see strong mayor).
A list of mayors still in office and ordered by their length of continuous service in that office. (If there is a break in their service, then this length is measured from their return to the office.)
The longest-serving current mayor of one of the 50 largest cities in the United States is Carolyn Goodman, who has been mayor of Las Vegas since July 6, 2011.
| Years | Name | Municipality | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Margaret M. Doud | Mackinac Island, Michigan | Entered office on April 14, 1975.[1] | ||
| Robert Heidenescher | Dupont, Ohio | Entered office on January 5, 1976.[2] | ||
| William D. Tate | Grapevine, Texas | Entered office on May 1, 1973. Served May 1, 1973 – May 1, 1985 and May 1, 1988–present[3] | ||
| years | Lamar Scroggs | Entered office in 1976.[4] | ||
| years | Harold Rainwater | Wilmore, Kentucky | Entered office in 1976.[5] | |
| Rutledge B. Leland, III | McClellanville, South Carolina | Entered office in 1976.[6] | ||
| Robert Chatfield | Prospect, Connecticut | Entered office on November 7, 1977. | ||
| years | Phil Williams | McLemoresville, Tennessee | Entered office in 1977.[7] He is the longest serving mayor in Tennessee history. | |
| years | Marvin Johnson | Independence, Minnesota | Entered office in 1979. | |
| years | Mary Hawkins Butler | Madison, Mississippi | Entered office in 1981. | |
| Jeffery D. Schielke | Batavia, Illinois | Entered office on May 4, 1981.[8] | ||
| Gerald R. Bennett | Palos Hills, Illinois | Entered Office in 1981 [9] | ||
| Mark Anthony McClure | Danville, West Virginia | Entered office on July 6, 1981. | ||
| James V. Bender Jr | Pollocksville, North Carolina | Entered office on November 1, 1982. | ||
| William "Bill" McIntosh | Moultrie, Georgia | Entered office in 1983. | ||
| Duane Dawson | Milan, Illinois | Entered office on May 6, 1985.[10] | ||
| years | Louie Davis | Waldo, Florida | Entered office in 1985. | |
| 38 years | Dennis M. Clough | Westlake, Ohio | Entered office in 1986.[11] | |
| Carlos López Rivera | Dorado, Puerto Rico | Entered office on August 3, 1987. | ||
| Dr. Ravi Bhasker | Socorro, New Mexico | Entered office on November 6, 1990. | ||
| Richard Turner | Weehawken, New Jersey | Entered office July 1, 1990[12] | ||
| James M. Cahill | New Brunswick, New Jersey | Entered office on January 1, 1991.[13] | ||
| J. Christian Bollwage | Elizabeth, New Jersey | Entered office on January 1, 1993.[14] | ||
| Dean J. Mazzarella | Leominster, Massachusetts | Entered office on January 3, 1994. |
A list of mayors in order of their total length of service. (If there is a break in their service, then this length is measured as the sum of their terms.)
| Years | Name | Municipality | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hilmar Moore | Richmond, Texas | Served from September 22, 1949, until his death on December 4, 2012.[15] | ||
| John H. Land | Apopka, Florida | Served from January 1, 1950, to January 1, 1968, and from January 1, 1971, to April 22, 2014. | ||
| 60 years | Charles E. Long | Booneville, Kentucky | Served from 1958 until his death on August 3, 2019.[16] | |
| Robert Linn | Beaver, Pennsylvania | Served from January 2, 1946, to August 22, 2004. | ||
| Bruce Arnold | Valparaiso, Florida | Served from January 21, 1964, until his death on February 23, 2017. | ||
| 56 years | Paul Jurko | Yankee Lake, Ohio | Served from November, 1931 until his death on March 1, 1988. | |
| Robert L. Butler | Marion, Illinois | Served from May 6, 1963[17] until his resignation on January 31, 2018.[18] | ||
| 52 years | Gerald Calabrese | Cliffside Park, New Jersey | Served from 1961 to 1963 and 1965 to 2015.[19] [20] | |
| 52 years | Frank Caliper | Colp, Illinois | Served from 1935 until his death on March 28, 1987. | |
| John M. Coyne | Brooklyn, Ohio | Served from 1948 to January 2000.[21] [22] | ||
| Donald Stephens | Rosemont, Illinois | First Mayor of Rosemont. Served from village's incorporation in 1956 to 2007. | ||
| Robert M. Blais | Lake George, New York | Served from April 5, 1971, to April 1, 2023.[23] [24] | ||
| Dock Hulett Gabbert | Derma, Mississippi | Served from July 1, 1969, to December 30, 2020.[25] | ||
| Leonard Scarcella | Stafford, Texas | Served from September 4, 1969, until his death on June 28, 2020.[26] | ||
| Leonard T. Connors | Surf City, New Jersey | Served from 1966 to January 5, 2016. | ||
| Frank E. Rodgers | Harrison, New Jersey | Served from September 4, 1946, to August 22, 1995. | ||
| Randall Wise | Niceville, Florida | Served from August, 1972 until his death on January 20, 2020. | ||
| 48 years | John Lewis Gay | Berea, Kentucky | Served from 1910 to 1958. | |
| 47 years, 11 months | Frank Kelly | Collingdale, Pennsylvania | Served from 1970 until his death on November 22, 2018. | |
| Nicholas B. Blase | Niles, Illinois | Served from May 2, 1961, until his resignation on August 25, 2008.[27] | ||
| Milt Kramer | Served from September 19, 1974, to January 1, 2022. | |||
| Noel B. Cummings | Hodgkins, Illinois | Served from 1979 until his formal retirement was announced on Oct. 3, 2022 at the age of 95.[28] | ||
| H. Ford Gravitt | Cumming, Georgia | Served from January 1, 1971, to December 31, 2017. | ||
| 46 years, 222 days | Joseph Sieb | Norridge, Illinois | Served from November 14, 1951, until his death on June 23, 1998.[29] | |
| 44 years | Charles "Sonny" Penhale | Helena, Alabama | Served from 1968 to 2012.[30] | |
| 44 years | Thomas M. Tartt | Livingston, Alabama | Served from 1980 to February 22, 2024. | |
| 44 years | Gerald H. Thompson | Fitzgerald, Georgia | Served from January 1, 1968, to January 1, 2012. | |
| years | Richard A. Mola | Elmwood Park, New Jersey | Served from 1972 until his death in 2016.[31] | |
| Paul W. Cassidy | Parma Heights, Ohio | Served from January, 1958 to January, 2001.[32] | ||
| Tom Reid | Pearland, Texas | Served from 1978 to 1990 and 1993 to May, 2020. | ||
| years | Gary W. Starr | Middleburg Heights, Ohio | Entered office in 1981. | |
| Erastus Corning II | Albany, New York | Served from January 2, 1942, to May 28, 1983. | ||
| Harold Wayne Ford | Galva, KS | Served from June 6, 1977, to January 31, 2019. He was the longest serving mayor of Galva, KS.[33] | ||
| 41 years | Glenn L. Sisco | Kinnelon, New Jersey | Served from 1969 to 2010. | |
| 40 years | George C. Clanton | Tappahannock, Virginia | Served from 1948 to 1988 | |
| Joseph P. Riley Jr. | Charleston, South Carolina | Served from December 15, 1975, to January 11, 2016. | ||
| years | Louis Bay 2nd | Hawthorne, New Jersey | Served from 1947 to 1987. | |
| William W. Dickinson Jr. | Wallingford, Connecticut | Served from January 2, 1984, to December 31, 2023. | ||
| John Ferrero | City of Industry, California | Served from Industry's incorporation in 1957 till his death on September 26, 1996.[34] | ||
| 37–38 years | James Eagan | Florissant, Missouri | Served from 1963 to 2000. | |
| 36 years | Ross Aragon | Pagosa Springs, Colorado | Served from 1978 to 2014 | |
| 36 years | Randall Ramsey | Parma, Missouri | Served from 1962 to 1974 and from 1991 to 2015.[35] | |
| Orville L. Hubbard | Dearborn, Michigan | Served from 1942 to 1978. | ||
| Edward J. Zabrocki | Tinley Park, Illinois | Served from May 1, 1981, until his resignation in June, 2016. | ||
| 34–35 years | Willis Conner | Dexter, Missouri | Served for about 35 years.[36] | |
| 34–35 years | Glendel Stephenson | Mebane, North Carolina | Served from 1975 to 1983 and 1993 to 2019.[37] [38] | |
| 33 years, 10 months | David W. Smith | Newark, California | Served from March 1978 to December 2011[39] [40] | |
| 33 years, 3 months | Joseph Barabe | Mellen, Wisconsin | Served from April 1987 to April 2001 and April 2003 to July 2022 | |
| 33 years | Richard A. Nowack | Oak Grove, Illinois | Served from May 1978 until his death on September 20, 2011.[41] | |
| 33 years | Joseph Smith | East Newark, New Jersey | Served from 1987 to 2020[42] | |
| 32 years | Anthony Vacco | Evergreen Park, Illinois | Served from 1969 to 2001. | |
| 32 years | Shawn Hogan | Hornell, New York | Served from 1985 to 2017. | |
| 32 years | Kenneth J. Sims | Euclid, Ohio | Served from 1938 until his retirement in June 1970[43] | |
| 31 years, 6 months | James A. Anzaldi | Clifton, New Jersey | Entered office July 1, 1990 and left office on December 31, 2022[44] [45] | |
| Frank Hague | Jersey City, New Jersey | Served from 1917 to 1947. | ||
| 30 years | Richard Homrighausen | Dover, Ohio | Served from 1992 until his suspension from office in May 2022 | |
| 30 years | Emmett Dofner Jr. | McClelland, Iowa | Served from 1987 until his death on May 2, 2017.[46] | |
| Daniel R. Brooks | North College Hill, Ohio | Served from January 1, 1984, until his resignation on December 21, 2013 | ||
| Dr. LeRoy G. Suire | Erath, Louisiana | Served from 1961 to 1990. | ||
| Willie Oswalt | Lake City, Georgia | Served from 1989 to 2018. | ||
| Arnold Klentz | West Allis, Wisconsin | Served from April 18, 1944, until his death on March 5, 1973.[47] [48] [49] | ||
| Don Plusquellic | Akron, Ohio | Served from January 1, 1987, until his resignation on May 31, 2015. | ||
| 28 years, 4 days | James Brainard | Carmel, Indiana | Served from January 1, 1996 to January 4, 2024 | |
| 28 years | Paul Amico | Secaucus, New Jersey | Served from 1964 to 1992.[50] | |
| 28 years | Henry Clark | Stephenville, Texas | Served from 1928 to 1956.[51] | |
| Henry Maier | Milwaukee, Wisconsin | Served from 1960 to 1988.[52] | ||
| 28 years | Walter A. Scott | Jackson, Mississippi | Served from 1917 to 1945.[53] | |
| 28 years | Thomas Gerard Dunn | Elizabeth, New Jersey | 1964 to 1992. Longest-serving mayor of a city of more than 100,000 people.[54] | |
| 28 years | George H. Lysle | McKeesport, Pennsylvania | Served from 1914 to 1942.[55] | |
| Stephen R. Reed | Harrisburg, Pennsylvania | Served from 1982 to 2010. | ||
| Don Robart | Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio | Served from 1986 to 2013. | ||
| 26 years, 30 days | Miguel A. Pulido | Santa Ana, California | Served from 1994 to 2020. | |
| 26 years | Manuel Lamela Abreu | Quebradillas, Puerto Rico | Served from 1918 to 1944. | |
| 24 Years | Timothy Hanna | Appleton, Wisconsin | Served From 1996 to 2020. |